The Importance of Processing in Modern Food

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I see the current availability of inexpensive first rate food to be one of the great triumphs of human creativity and ingenuity not a tragedy. The ability for people around the world to eat well in unimaginable ways that they could have done 50 and 100 years ago is just something to be wildly celebrated. I'm hoping that you know a new era of debate will emerge because there are questions to be asked about still about what are now that we have abundance all these ways of thinking about food were really designed to deal with scarcity and we do have abundance.

Rachel Laudan, visiting scholar at the University of Texas and author of Cuisine and Empire, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the history of food. Topics covered include the importance of grain, the spread of various styles of cooking, why French cooking has elite status, and the reach of McDonald's. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the appeal of local food and other recent food passions.